History DragonBallZ / TropesAToG

* ArtEvolution: DBZ has a lot more angular lines, muscles that look like they were chiseled out of rock, and blood compared to series start.

* AlasPoorVillain:

** Vegeta's second death after selling his soul to Babidi for power and to return to his old evil self. Despite him mercilessly killing hundreds of people and being the one who allowed Buu to be freed by fighting Goku, his HeroicSacrifice to stop Buu is one of the saddest moments in the series. Made extra heart-wrenching since Vegeta knows he's going to Hell for all his past bad deeds and still blows himself up willingly to save his family.

* ForWantOfANail: The main timeline is ''very'' different compared to Trunks' timeline, for no discernible reason other than later on in his timeline, Cell went into the past, creating the ''main'' timeline where he's already there; even though Cell apparently took no steps to actively change anything (in fact, being in a cocoon the whole time), there are several differences, though Kami briefly theorizes this may because time travel just messes with reality in general rather than needing anyone to change anything. Such changes include:
** Androids #17 and #18 being inexplicably more powerful but nowhere near as evil.[[note]]Apparently, the versions Trunks was expecting killed Gero ''before'' he could tune up their perpetual generators and tune down their personalities to make them more controllable.[[/note]]
** Dr. Gero turning himself into an cyborg and making #19.
** #18 deciding to wake up #16, meaning there are now 3 androids (not counting Gero and #19)
** Events happening earlier or later than they're supposed to, like Goku getting sick with his heart disease ''much'' later than Trunks expected.[[note]]In this specific instance, the stress of teleporting to Earth to fight Mecha-Frieza and King Cold caused Future Goku's heart disease to develop faster; in the main timeline, he sensed that Trunks was taking care of it and waited for his space pod to arrive, meaning he didn't get stressed until the Androids showed up.[[/note]]
** And, of course, Cell being there in the first place, which causes widespread carnage and such.

** Babidi shows why being a BadBoss who is prone to YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness is a detriment in the long run. He ruthlessly kills Spopovich and Yamu when they ''exceeded'' his expectations and allowed Buu to eat [[TheDragon his loyal second-in-command]] Dabura, despite his warnings that Buu would turn on him and begs him to reseal him. When Buu did turn against him, [[LaserGuidedKarma he had no one left to protect him]].

*** Majin Buu, an EldritchAbomination so fearsome that he killed the gods of the Dragon World and made the above mention Cell looked like a wimp even in his weakest form. Buu didn't just destroy planets, he destroyed galaxies and remained the strongest thing in existence for billions of years. He could also regenerate from vapors, making him nearly impossible to kill. It took the power of an entire planet to finally put an end to him.

** Babidi shows why being a BadBoss who is prone to YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness is a detriment in the long run. He ruthlessly kills Spopovich and Yamu when they ''exceeded'' his expectations and allowed Buu to eat his loyal {{Dragon}} Dabura, despite his warnings that Buu would turn on him and begs him to reseal him. When Buu did turn against him, [[LaserGuidedKarma he had no one left to protect him]].

** In the beginning of ''Dragon Ball'', Goku literally had no idea what boobs were (he thought Bulma had a butt on her chest). Near the end of the Majin Buu saga, Goku is literally using Bulma's breasts as a bargaining chip to get Old Kai to explain his ability to unlock potential[[note]]Much to the ire of Vegeta, who suggests that Goku should offer his own wife's breasts instead[[/note]].

** During the fight with Raditz, Piccolo needs Goku to buy him five minutes to charge up his Special Beam Cannon. He later perfects the move to remove the charging time, although it does appear weaker since the Special Beam Cannon was able to drop an enemy who over three time stronger than Piccolo, but such a feat is never seen again in ''Z''.
** The Spirit Bomb. Considering it takes a long time to gather enough energy to use and that Goku is left defenseless while doing so, it is difficult to use in live combat. Usually, live bait is used to help him. It's used three different times and on each occasion, a weaker ally has to HoldTheLine long enough for Goku to form the attack.
** The third stage of the original Super Saiyan form[[note]]also known as "Ultra Super Saiyan" or "Super Saiyan Grade III"[[/note]], gives a huge boost in power, supposedly as much as a Super Saiyan 2. Unfortunately all the muscles that come with it drastically decrease speed, making it practically impossible to actually hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta both realized that the second form was useless due to the loss of speed, and Cell calls out Trunks for using such a foolish technique.
** This becomes an IronicEcho when Cell bulks up massively in his fight with [=SSJ2=] Gohan. To top it all off, Trunks lampshades this as Gohan is dodging everything Cell throws at him, remarking that Cell could probably put the hurt on Gohan if he ever managed to hit him.
** The Super Saiyan 3 form can also be regarded as this, as it increases the user's power by 400x, but the immense energy drain it comes with makes it impossible to sustain for long.
*** When Gotenks used the form, the energy drain caused his Fusion to end early. He should have had a full thirty minutes to defeat Super Buu, but instead his Fusion ended and Goten and Trunks were kicked back out after only five.
*** When Goku attempts to use the form against Kid Buu, Vegeta accuses him of sandbagging but Goku reveals that he's legitimately trying to defeat Buu. However, Buu's hyper-offensive fighting style is preventing him from powering up to his full strength.[[note]]In the Japanese anime and the dub, Goku tells Vegeta that he's holding back against Kid Buu. In the dub, he's holding back so Vegeta can have a turn and drags the fight on too long to the point that he needs time to charge to full power. In the Japanese version, Goku is trying to look cool, which is why he doesn't use his full power from the start.[[/note]] Vegeta fights Buu for him so that Goku can have time to power up, but the energy drain counteracts Goku's efforts to draw ki. Instead of reaching full power, Goku's ki completely empties and he's kicked out of the form entirely.

* AwesomeButImpractical:

* BoobsOfSteel: Inverted. The female fighters (Eighteen, Videl, etc.) tend to be modestly endowed, while the non-fighters (such as Bulma) are fairly stacked.

** Whenever the strongest hero is absent or temporarily taken out of the fight, namely Goku, the others are forced in a struggle against the villains until they join in.

** Future Trunks comes from a timeline in which Goku dies of a heart disease and the world is ravaged Androids 17 and 18. The Earth's defenders are killed by the Androids including Piccolo, which results in Kami dying and the Dragon Balls losing their power. Gohan trains Trunks until he, too, is killed by the Androids.

* BizarreAlienReproduction: The Nameks have only one gender (Males). They reproduce by puking eggs containing their offspring out of their mouths. This greatly confuses Bulma. She gives Dende a lesson that's very reminiscent of TheTalk Only for him to ask what a woman is.

* DeconstructorFleet: ''Dragon Ball'' may have set the standards for modern {{shonen}}s, but it doesn't shy away from deconstruction its own tropes:

*** The end of the Kid Buu fight deconstructs HumbleHero. [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold Because Goku always save the world from the shadows]] no one, outside a few, know of his deeds. So when Goku begs the world for energy to power the Spirit Bomb that will kill Majin Buu, only the people who intimately knows him listened. Everyone else blows him off like Vegeta. It takes Mr. Satan, the resident FakeUltimateHero, to yell at the people of Earth before they're willing to help since Mr. Satan, not Goku, is known as the world's savior.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The Kais mostly run on this system. The Kais of the lower realms who oversee the universe are powerful, but weaker than an elite Saiyan. Their boss, the Grand Kai, is much stronger, able to out-speed Post-Cell Games Goku in his base form, and keep up with Pikkon and Super Saiyan Goku's match during the Otherworld Tournament. Then ''his'' bosses, the Supreme Kais, are even stronger with the weakest of them being around Perfect Cell's level. It then becomes {{Subverted}} within the ranks of the Supreme Kais. The Grand Supreme Kai was weaker than North Supreme Kai despite being the ruler of the Kais.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority:

* DramaPreservingHandicap: Whenever the strongest hero is absent or temporarily taken out of the fight, namely Goku, the others are forced in a struggle against the villains until they join in.

* DramaPreservingHandicap: Whenever the strongest hero is absent or temporarily taken out of the fight, namely Goku, the other are forced in a struggle against the villains until they join in.

* DubInducedPlothole:
** An infamous example in the Ocean dub of the Sayian Saga; Vegeta simply explaining how Sayains turn into giant monkeys was changed to Vegeta explaining how [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_DFJ-OXTzQ Goku's "brilliant scientist" father]] invented the method to transform Sayains without a full moon, a bit of lore which the translation team ''completely made up'' and contradicts all other versions of Goku's dad.
** Likewise, Goku's realization that ''he'' was the giant monster who killed his beloved grandfather was changed to Goku realizing that ''Vegeta'' killed him -- which not only makes no sense, it also makes Goku look deluded and in denial over what really happened.
** The Funimation dub of ''Z'' was made before they started translating the original Dragon Ball. As such, there's some ''glaring'' inconsistencies when they get to the Android Arc. According to Funi, Goku actually fought Doctor Gero (whom they confuse with Commander Red, who Goku never met), before the mad scientist escaped, when in reality Goku had never heard him of before. Also, Tao -- a mercenary hired by the Red Ribbion army to take out Goku -- is mistaken as the ''true'' leader of the Red Ribbon army, who Goku defeats with his Kamehameha.